"Beautiful Bitch" is a German 100-minute movie from almost 10 years ago. It was a bit of a breakthrough film for lead actress Katharina Derr, even if this is probably still her most known performance to this date. For writer and director Martin Theo Krieger, this was the last work as a filmmaker so far. I am not sure if he is retired now. Anyway, his film here is about a teenage girl who is a professional thief early on and faces the dark sides of life as an immigrant in Germany. She gets in trouble with the wrong people, but also meets some people who genuinely seem to like her, even if the initial reaction wasn't entirely positive either.
All in all, I believe this is a decent film for the most part. There are 2 or 3 occasions, during which it wasn't working or cringeworthy in terms of the script or acting, but overall it is an interesting story and I felt for the main character. I guess that has more to do with Derr fitting the role nicely than with truly great acting. Admittedly, her face expressions weren't too many in this movie. On the other hand, I thought the actress who plays her best friend did a pretty good job and this is even higher to rate as she did not appeal to me physically.
What I liked about the film was that it was unclear for a very long time who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Krieger includes some nice shades here, a lot more than black and white and it was unclear where exactly the film was heading. A couple surprises included, some truly shocking ones at times. I feel kinda sorry to see Krieger is not doing any new movies apparently. I can see solid talent in here and overall I have seen many German films from recent years with worse scripts. It is not great by any means or best-of-year material, but a very tolerable watch for the most part and I recommend it. Thumbs up.
All in all, I believe this is a decent film for the most part. There are 2 or 3 occasions, during which it wasn't working or cringeworthy in terms of the script or acting, but overall it is an interesting story and I felt for the main character. I guess that has more to do with Derr fitting the role nicely than with truly great acting. Admittedly, her face expressions weren't too many in this movie. On the other hand, I thought the actress who plays her best friend did a pretty good job and this is even higher to rate as she did not appeal to me physically.
What I liked about the film was that it was unclear for a very long time who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Krieger includes some nice shades here, a lot more than black and white and it was unclear where exactly the film was heading. A couple surprises included, some truly shocking ones at times. I feel kinda sorry to see Krieger is not doing any new movies apparently. I can see solid talent in here and overall I have seen many German films from recent years with worse scripts. It is not great by any means or best-of-year material, but a very tolerable watch for the most part and I recommend it. Thumbs up.